Interlake School Division’s board of trustees have been crunching numbers to develop the proposed budget for the 2025-26 school year, which maintains the current mill rate.
On Monday, Feb. 24, the school board presented its 2025-26 proposed budget during a virtual public information meeting. If approved, the proposed mill rate will remain the same at 11.067 for the next school year.
The proposed budget would be balanced at $51,041,000, compared to $45,683,000 in 2024-25. This budget allowed for increased costs for items such as salaries and benefits, infrastructure improvements, transportation investments and inflation.
The increased revenue includes provincial and municipal funding. Provincial funding increased by one per cent, the lowest increase among Manitoba school divisions.
Board chair Gord Greasley expressed his disappointment with the provincial funding decision.
“It appears that the province consciously limited increases to divisions with relatively low mill rates and significant growth in their assessment base, on the assumption that those divisions could fill the gap through local tax increases,” Greasley said.
“Fortunately, our assessment base grew 19.5 per cent, allowing us to continue to recover from previous tax freezes while maintaining our current mill rate.”
For the 2024-25 school year, the projected pupil-to-teacher ratio for kindergarten to Grade 8 is 19.06 while the projected ratio for grades 9 to 12 is 19.61. The pupil-to-teacher ratio is calculated by the number of students divided by the number of classroom teachers in each building.
Enrolment in 2024-25 was 3,006 students. For 2025-26, it’s expected to decrease slightly to 2,927 students.
Currently, the school division employs 230 professional staff members, which includes teachers, administrators, program support workers and clinicians. Clinician services available to students include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language services, psychology, mental health and social work. The proposed budget would increase the professional staff team to 235 professional staff members for the next school year.
The proposed budget includes increased funds for maintenance of buildings and grounds, as well as for transportation.
In total, 1,780 students are transported by bus in the school division. Interlake School Division buses travel more than 900,000 kilometres in total each year. The proposed budget includes funding for four new school buses, continuing the division’s efforts to replace its aging fleet.
Interlake School Division operates 13 public schools, eight colony schools and two divisional buildings.
In addition, the proposed budget would increase school budgets and eliminate school supply costs for families.
A link to a recording of the proposed budget presentation meeting will be posted on the Interlake School Division website at www.interlakesd.ca. Residents can submit feedback by emailing isd@isd21.mb.ca by Friday, Feb. 28.
